Every employer wants reliable and skilled employees to work with. A poorly planned out hiring process could lead you to taking on the wrong kind of employees. Here are some tips to help improve your hiring process and get the best people working for you.

Allocate yourself enough free time

You can never hope to find good employees if you’re rushing the hiring process. Vacancies may need to be filled fast, but it’s better to take you time and find an employee who you’re not going to be replacing again in a few weeks’ time. Spare yourself some free time for job marketing, reading applications and conducting interviews. This will allow you to advertise in a greater number of places, read a greater number of applications and interview a greater number of people. Besides, if applicants think that they’re being rushed, they’re more likely to look elsewhere.

Let applicants know what you can offer them

Your job ad shouldn’t just be a list of demands that your ideal candidate must meet. Many of the best candidates want to know what’s in it for them. For this reason, it’s worth listing some incentives on your job ad – why do people want to work for your company? This could be the opportunity to earn bonuses, the opportunity to have a company car or some other kind of perk that gets people interested.

Advertise beyond online job listing sites

Online job listings aren’t the only places people look for jobs. Consider posting flyers on job boards, contacting your local newspaper or taking part in a job fair. You can even hire a recruitment company to help scout talent. If you’re looking for specialist talent, look for a specialist recruitment company such as a credit recruitment agency for a job in credit. You can even hire a headhunter to help find you someone suitable for the role.

Make use of social media

Social media can have lots of uses in the hiring process. You can advertise vacancies by posting job ads on Facebook. You can then screen applicants by checking their profiles. The likes of LinkedIn are particularly worth using – this site was built for professional networking and can be great for finding and screening applicants.

Do background checks

Background checks can stop you taking on a dodgy employee. This could include checking someone’s criminal record or even doing a credit check. It’s also worth following up on references – there are more and more cases of lies on CVs nowadays. Contact previous employers and schools to check you’re taking on who they claim to be.

Introduce applicants to your team

It’s worth introducing applicants to your team. It’s important that your current employees get on well with candidates. This could be a case of letting a senior employee sit in on an interview with you or it could be a case of letting a candidate do a trial shift and then asking what your team think of the candidate.

Get contracts in place

A legal contract will help you in the long run if you do hire a bad egg. Make employees sign this before handing them any jobs to do. A good contract should protect you from an employee suing you unnecessarily, but it should also help to make your employee feel protected by mentioning perks that they’re still legally entitled to.